Part IShouldn’t You Be Returning Home?
Prelude
In three days, the Ocarina of Time remake lands on Switch 2. My personal Zelda adventure started on my ninth birthday in 1998 with Ocarina of Time. I played it nonstop until 2000 when I opened Majora’s Mask for my eleventh birthday.
Now I’m a dad, somewhere in my 30s, and I’ve been thinking of the weight placed on Link’s young shoulders in these two games and the consequences of that weight.
To the reader, this article contains major spoilers for Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask. If you’d rather not know, stop here.
Author’s note: Once I’ve played the remake, I plan to revisit this article with any updates or insights it gives me. Nothing has been formally announced, but Majora’s Mask on Switch 2 feels as imminent as the moon falling.
Dawn of the First Day – 72 Hours Remain –
1Majora’s Mask (Nintendo, N64, 2000), the Happy Mask Salesman’s farewell. Game lines in this feature are quoted from the English N64 text.Once the Happy Mask Salesman has Majora’s Mask back, he says he’s in the midst of his travels and must bid you farewell. Then: “Shouldn’t you be returning home as well?”1 Link says nothing, because Link never says anything. The Salesman talks a while longer about meetings and partings, excuses himself, and vanishes into thin air. The credits send Link riding alone into the forest he came out of.
2In the English N64 script, “Hyrule” appears four times: twice in the opening crawl and twice in Zelda’s memory. “Hero of Time” never appears.Nobody standing in Termina says the word Hyrule.2 Not the mayor, not Granny at the inn, not the four giants, not the moon or the children inside it. The only character who seems to know Link has a home is a man who admitted, without being asked, that he had been following Link. He spent the entire game standing in a room inside the clock tower, waiting for a child to come back. He’s also Link’s old boss: back in Ocarina of Time, Link sold masks for his shop in Hyrule Castle Town.
3The Salesman’s first words to Link, minutes after the Skull Kid curses him at the start of Majora’s Mask: “You’ve met with a terrible fate, haven’t you?” The ride in question is the one before that ambush, not anything after the game ends.There’s a lingering question. What home is Link supposed to go back to? He’s been sent there once already: at the end of Ocarina of Time, Zelda tells him to “go home” to “where you are supposed to be.” We know where he went after he left Hyrule: Majora’s Mask tells that tale. What no game tells us is where he was riding to before, in the Salesman’s words, he “met with a terrible fate.”3
The Record
Nintendo never says where he was going, and the silence looks deliberate. Four documents cover the months between the two games, each saying just enough to keep the question open. The longest of them is the text that scrolls past before the game starts.
- The opening crawl
In the land of Hyrule, thereechoes a legend. A legend helddearly by the Royal Family thattells of a boy...A boy who,after battling evil and savingHyrule, crept away from the landthat had made him a legend...Done with the battles he oncewaged across time, he embarkedon a journey. A secret andpersonal journey...A journey in search of abeloved and invaluable friend...A friend with whom he partedways when he finally fulfilled hisheroic destiny and took his placeamong legends...
- The instruction manual
Several months after rescuingPrincess Zelda and saving the landof Hyrule, Link set foot intothe mysterious world of Terminaby chance while in the midstof a new journey.
- The Player’s Guide
Months after parting wayswith his fairy sidekick, Navi, …Link sets off to searchfor his missing companion.
- Hyrule Historia
Link set off on his horse,Epona, who lived at Lon Lon Ranch.Months passed as he wanderedin search of his companion, Navi,eventually losing himselfin a mysterious forest.
Line by line, the crawl makes three choices. It never says where he’s going, only who he’s after: “a beloved and invaluable friend,” one he parted with the moment he took his place among legends. It never calls Hyrule his home, only “the land that had made him a legend.” And he doesn’t just leave that land. He “crept away” from it, on a journey the crawl calls secret.
4Majora’s Mask instruction manual (Nintendo of America, 2000), p. 5. Page 4 prints the opening crawl.The instruction manual reprints the crawl and adds one line of its own: “Several months after rescuing Princess Zelda and saving the land of Hyrule, Link set foot into the mysterious world of Termina by chance while in the midst of a new journey.”4
5The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask Official Player’s Guide (Nintendo Power, 2000), pp. 4 and 22.The official Player’s Guide is the first to name the friend. Months after parting ways with Navi, Link sets off to search for his missing companion, and the Skull Kid ambushes him as he rides Epona out of Hyrule into an uncharted stretch of the Lost Woods.5
6Talon, who runs Lon Lon Ranch, to the boy: “When you grow up, why don’t you come to work here, on this ranch? That’s a standing offer! I’ll be waiting for you.”7Hyrule Historia (Nintendo, 2011; in English from Dark Horse, 2013), p. 110. The official book for the series’ 25th anniversary: artwork, the history of each game, and the first official timeline, the one that splits in three after Ocarina of Time.Hyrule Historia tells it on page 110. He set off on Epona, the horse from Lon Lon Ranch.6 Months passed as he searched for Navi, until he lost himself in a mysterious forest, and “it just so happened” that the forest led to Termina.7
That’s the whole account: a horse, a missing friend, a forest. None of it says where he was going, and none of it happens on screen. One scene from those months does reach the screen, and Majora’s Mask saves it for the final night.
The Memory
Day three. The moon is close enough to see its teeth. Link climbs the clock tower, the Skull Kid is up there with the Ocarina of Time in his hands, and when Link takes it back the game stops.
Majora’s Mask, item text“You got the Ocarina of Time back! Princess Zelda gave you this precious instrument.”
He is still a Deku Scrub when this happens. He has been one since the opening, for three in-game days, long enough that the guards won’t let him out of town and nobody he’s spoken to has taken him seriously.
Zelda appears. Not in Termina, not as a ghost, not in the sky. In his head.
Zelda, Majora’s Mask“You are already leaving this land of Hyrule, aren’t you? Even though it was only a short time, I feel like I’ve known you forever. I’ll never forget the days we spent together in Hyrule... And I believe in my heart that a day will come when I shall meet you again...”
She hands him the ocarina. She says she is praying his journey will be safe. She gives him the Song of Time, and tells him the Goddess of Time is protecting him, and that if he plays it she will help.
Then Tatl:
Tatl, Majora’s Mask“Snap out of it! What are you doing lost in memories?!? Get yourself together! Getting that old ocarina back isn’t gonna help us!!!”
The game is not subtle about what just happened. It says Zelda gave him the instrument. It says memories come rushing back. It calls the Song of Time “a song of memories of Princess Zelda.” It has the fairy call them memories out loud. And for the rest of the game, every time you open the menu, the ocarina reads: This musical instrument is filled with memories of Princess Zelda.
8The clock tower opens at midnight on the final day, six in-game hours before the moon falls, and an in-game hour passes in about 45 real seconds. Official Player’s Guide, pp. 16 and 24.A memory. Not a vision, not a message, not Zelda reaching across a border she doesn’t know exists. Link’s own head, with a wooden face on it, on top of a clock tower, in the last hours before the moon lands.8
3DSA 3DS note marks a line that the 3DS remakes word differently from the N64 games quoted here. In Majora’s Mask 3D (2015) the Song of Storms is “learned,” which leaves the Song of Time the only song Link remembers.9Three songs come back from Ocarina of Time, which says “You’ve learned” for each. Majora’s Mask says “You remembered the Song of Time!” after Zelda’s memory, and “You remembered the Song of Storms!” at Flat’s tomb in Ikana Graveyard, calling it “this melody that you’ve heard before.” When Romani teaches him Epona’s Song, it says only “It is Epona’s Song!” New songs get “You learned.”The game doesn’t say he learned the Song of Time. It says he “remembered” it, as it does the Song of Storms3DS, another song he brought from Ocarina of Time.9 He learned this one from Zelda, when she fled the castle. She rode past him on Impa’s horse, threw the ocarina into the moat, and when he fished it out, her voice came with it:
Same ocarina, same song, from Zelda both times. The first time, she was the one leaving. This time he’s the one leaving, and she holds it out to him.
The Order
The minutes after the memory go like this.
- The Song of TimeZelda’s song: the three days unspool and he lands on the first morning, still a Deku Scrub
The Salesmanwaiting where he has been the whole time
The Song of Healinghis face comes back, and the curse becomes a mask he can take off
10Saria’s Song in Ocarina of Time: C‑Down, C‑Right, C‑Left, C‑Down, C‑Right, C‑Left. The Song of Healing in Majora’s Mask: C‑Left, C‑Right, C‑Down, C‑Left, C‑Right, C‑Down. The same six notes, backwards.Her song only gets him back to the first morning. The song that fixes him comes from the Salesman: the Song of Healing, which is Saria’s Song played backwards.10
That’s the order. First Zelda, in a memory. Then the Salesman, with the Song of Healing. Only then does Link get his own face back.
When It Happened
In the memory, the child Zelda doesn’t tell Link he’s leaving. She asks, though she seems to know: “You are already leaving this land of Hyrule, aren’t you?” But Link never leaves Hyrule in Ocarina of Time. The only departure anyone records is the one the documents describe: months after the ending, on Epona, looking for Navi.
So the scene has only one place it can go: after the courtyard, where a Zelda who has never met him turns around without a word, and before he rides out on Epona. That’s the gap between the two games.
- The courtyardOcarina of Time’s last scene: Zelda turns and says nothing
- Zelda’s goodbyethe memory, the only moment from these months on screen
- The ride outon Epona, looking for Navi
- The Lost Woodsmonths later, lost in a mysterious forest
- Terminawhere Majora’s Mask begins
So the memory is Zelda’s goodbye before he leaves, set after Ocarina of Time ends and shown only in Majora’s Mask.
Two Goodbyes
The memory isn’t Zelda’s only goodbye. Ocarina of Time ends on one too, from the adult Zelda, and the two have almost nothing in common.
11Ocarina of Time (Nintendo, N64, 1998), the ending: Zelda’s farewell above the clouds.That one is above the clouds, and she is a Sage doing a job. Here is all of it:11
Zelda, Ocarina of Time“Thank you, Link... Thanks to you, Ganondorf has been sealed inside the Evil Realm! Thus, peace will once again reign in this world...for a time.All the tragedy that has befallen Hyrule was my doing... I was so young...I could not comprehend the consequences of trying to control the Sacred Realm. I dragged you into it, too. Now it is time for me to make up for my mistakes... You must lay the Master Sword to rest and close the Door of Time...However, by doing this, the road between times will be closed...Link, give the Ocarina to me... As a Sage, I can return you to your original time with it.When peace returns to Hyrule... It will be time for us to say good-bye...3DS3DSOcarina of Time 3D (2011) has this line in the present: “Peace has returned to Hyrule... It is time for us to say goodbye...”Now, go home, Link. Regain your lost time! Home... where you are supposed to be... the way you are supposed to be...Thank you... Link... Good-bye....”
Almost none of it is about him. She thanks him, takes the blame, and gets through the procedure: the sword, the Door of Time, the ocarina. The one line that is about him sends him home, to “where you are supposed to be,” and leaves the place blank. Majora’s Mask ends the same way, with the Salesman asking whether he shouldn’t be returning home. Two games, two send-offs, and nobody says where.
So where is it? A moment later he’s a child again, and Navi flies out the window. Everyone who saw what he did is seven years away.
Zelda’s goodbye in Majora’s Mask is much warmer and arrives at one of the darkest points of the game:
No Ganondorf, no Master Sword, no temples, no seven years, no phrase like Hero of Time. It’s hardly a goodbye at all. It’s her waiting to say hello again.
The adult Zelda, who knew everything he had done, thanked him for the job and sent him home. The child Zelda, who saw none of it, talked only about him.
She’s also right, in a way she can’t check. It was a short time. She has no idea how short her version is compared to his.
Without Orders, Only a Song
Adult Zelda took the ocarina back above the clouds to send him home, so how does the child Zelda have it to give? It was hers first. It’s the Royal Family’s hidden treasure, and in the courtyard, the day they met, she promised to protect it “with all my power.” The ending sends Link back to a Zelda who has never met him. She hasn’t given it to anyone yet.
12Hyrule Historia, telling the same months, has her hand it over after he warns her about the future: she “entrusted the Ocarina of Time to Link and instructed him to travel far away in order to prevent Ganondorf from entering the Sacred Realm.” p. 110.What the scene doesn’t have is a reason. Every other account of Zelda handing him this ocarina comes with orders. At the moat: “Play this melody in front of the altar in the Temple of Time. You must protect the Triforce!”12 Majora’s Mask keeps the ocarina and the song and leaves the orders out. She prays that his journey be safe and asks him to remember a song.
And the scene is a goodbye, which means the one moment we see from those months is Link leaving. There is nothing about what he did with the rest of them. There is nothing about why he was looking for Navi beyond the crawl’s “beloved and invaluable friend,” which is a feeling rather than a reason.
Home
13No game names the spot, and the memory is white to its edges. Ocarina of Time has the two children meet face to face in one place, the castle courtyard, which Link reaches on foot, past the guards. There is no horse there, the first time or in the last scene. Hyrule Historia says she gave him the ocarina, not where. Here Epona is standing behind him, and Zelda asks if he’s “already leaving this land of Hyrule.” That leaves outside the walls.By the time the Salesman asks his question, only one person has said the name of the place Link left, and she said it to him: Zelda, somewhere outside the castle walls.13
The Salesman doesn’t wait for an answer. He hands the question back:
Link says nothing. He rides back into the woods.
